DIGITAL BACKPACKS FOR 21ST CENTURY LEARNERSbackpack.jpg
What's digital in your backpack?

A Computer Literacy Project

21st century students not only carry the traditional school supplies in their backpacks but now with 1:1 computing on the horizon and as digital "natives" they are can be encouraged to aggregate Internet resources and computer applications that can help research, create and share their assignments.




What's in your digital backpack?

Here are some new recommendations being added to this site. They will also be indexed alphabetically.

A student recommended **mindmeister.com**. He stated that, "it is a brilliant program to organize all your info/data . Strongly recommend." ( Recommended by Joshua Kevin G, May 2010)

A literacy-coach in our district recommended, Dabbleboard for creating visuals. He said that his own children really enjoy this creativity program. It is a an online whiteboard for drawing and creating visuals. Students can share and collaborate in team projects. (Recommended by Mike, Fall 2009)

A technology director recommended http://www.edistorm.com/ as a cool web tool for brainstorming! (Recommended by Brian, May 2010)

More digital Web 2.0 online resources to consider


Which presentation tool is appropriate to share your project?Blogs (many different blog sites are available)
Bubbl - http://bubbl.us/-free web application for brainstorming online
Dabbleboard-an online whiteboard for drawing and creating visuals. Students can share and collaborate in team projects.
Digital Storytelling- Storyboarding helps you organize the different types of text, audio and visuals. (i.e. Photostory 3 (free Microsoft), Animoto-Popular for creating booktrailers and digital storytelling projects.
GoogleDocs-If you don't have Word but you have Internet access then consider a Google account! Google docs allows students to save documents, spreadsheets and create slideshows!
Glogster: Create posters and visuals for projects. Use Glogster Educational site for classes (teacher set-up required).
Scrapblog-online digital scrapbooking!
Xtranormal-Text to movie! You can easily create a movie by selecting your characters and typing in thier dialog!

4 GATHERING INFORMATION (Exploring)

1) Library Website: Skim and scan your library webpage---it provides you with excellent resources for research!
2) Subscription Databases-become familiar with your library's subscription databases!
3) Libraryspot.com (a quick and helpful online reference site).
4) Online catalog (Try Destiny)Become familiar with your library's online catalog and it's special features!
4) Surveys-Do you need to include survey results in your report?
Examples: Survey Monkey (tutorial video), Google Survey (YouTube tutorial), or Poll Daddy (used by NING social networking site).
CITING SOURCES (Sourcing)
1) Learn to use Destiny's RESOURCE LISTS to create a list of sources you are thinking about using for your research.
2) Easy Bib (free online citation tool)
3) Leyden Style Manual
4) Owl: Purdue Online Writing Lab : MLA citation information (most commonly used method in high school)
TAKING NOTES
GoogleDocs-jot down your quick notes to share with others in your project team using Google Docs.
Zoho Notebook "allows user to type and add image, audio, video, html, urls, RSS, files, sheets, and more. You can record video and audios directly into the notebooks, integrate them with Skype for chats..." (Reviewed by http://mashable.com/2008/08/19/online-note-taking-applications/.